View full sizeShaker Heights High School alum, who was introduced to the Motown sound by his singer-percussionist mom, Shaker Judge K.J. Montgomery eventually became the full-time drummer for the legendary Four Tops. Now, he's bringing his own band to Northeast Ohio for a Friday gig at Nighttown.Caitlin Blair Cogar

Drummer Drew Schultz has had what by any definition is an interesting musical career, even at the age of 25, and it all began with his first paying gig.

“It was my freshman year in high school,’’ said Schultz. “It was at a bar in Tremont, with two of my friends from the Cleveland Heights Public High School. I couldn’t drive yet, so our parents would drive us there, drop us off at this bar and pick us up afterwards.’’

For his trouble, the self-proclaimed “proud product of Shaker Heights High School music program’’ and his buddies each collected $50 for each Wednesday night gig. The cash probably made bleary-eyed Thursday morning algebra classes a little easier to take.

Most of us had parents who played taxi driver for after-school things like baseball or soccer practice, or maybe ballet or tap lessons. But driving your kid to a bar to play music? On a school night?

Well, yeah. See, Schultz never really had a choice. His mom is Shaker Heights Municipal Judge K.J. Montgomery, who ALSO has a background in music, and sings and plays percussion with the No Name Band. The band is made up of a dozen Cleveland lawyers who share a love of rock ‘n’ roll, and usually use it to benefit causes, like last week’s Rock for Change at the House of Blues to benefit the Cleveland Rape Crisis Center.

“It really does start because of my mom’s band,’’ Schultz said in a call to his Brooklyn, N.Y., home. “They would rehearse at my house, and she would take me to rehearsals when I was a little kid. Brent Buckley is the drummer for my mom’s group. I remember watching him and thinking, ‘I want to play drums like him.’’’

And Montgomery’s music also is how young Schultz, who brings his Drew Schultz Funk Machine band to Nighttown Friday night, July 5, ended up as the drummer for the Four Tops.

“I was always a huge Motown fan,’’ Schultz said. “I would steal the tapes my mom was using to learn all these songs. By the time I got into NYU (New York University) for college, I was really deep into the Motown thing.’’

When the Four Tops came to New York for a show, the college student used his connections to ask then-drummer Benjamin “Butch’’ Corbett, who played with the band for 25 years, for a lesson. But Corbett didn’t have time to teach, so he suggested the young percussionist just sit in on a rehearsal, play some hand percussion, and he’d give him a few pointers later.

Schultz impressed Corbett enough that he ended up onstage for part of that gig.

“It was at Carnegie Hall in New York,’’ he said, “a heck of a gig to sit in on for the first time. George Roundtree, the musical director, and Butch, the two of them, took me in, ‘Tree especially.’’

At the age of 19, Schultz became the band’s full-time hand percussion player, and eventually moved to the band’s home base of Detroit to take over on the full kit.

“I’ve been really lucky in the mentor field,’’ Schultz said, who has left the Tops and returned to New York to pursue a career as a drummer and songwriter with his own band. “My mom was first. She started teaching me piano, then the guy from the No Name Band, Brent Buckley. He was always very supportive, and still is. Then I started taking lessons from Scott Flowers at the Fairmount School of Music.’’

Former Shaker Heights High School percussion teacher Bill Ransom, who now is at Cleveland State University, was an influence from fifth grade and into college, Schultz said.

“I always say that I’ve been very lucky to have been a part of an educational institution [that] had the resources to be supportive to young musicians,’’ Schultz said. “Cleveland has a lot of opportunities for young kids to play music. It sounds cheesy, but it’s true: I think I am who I am because of my musical education.

“Learning how to sit in a practice room and learning how to fail over and over again until you do it right is huge,’’ he said.

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